YOU CAN'T EDIT NOTHING.
(Nothing = What's not there yet)
The good news? You can write anything you want on a blank page.
The bad news? To edit, you need to write something first.
This is not a writing course, by the way.
The 'page' can be anything you can imagine... because anything can be explained as a project. And any project is editable.
This is all about the art of getting things done... even if they look ugly (to us).
Time to stop wasting time, paralysis from analysis, and inertia.
Most spend too much time theorizing.
Explaining why now is not the best time to try X. To do Y. To learn Z.
And while the best time to start was yesterday... the next best time is right now.
Miss this, and you are still stuck in the same loop tomorrow.
Why does this matter so much?
Because without movement there is no progress. No momentum.
Potential leaks by the minute. And 99% of the time? Because of fear.
The fear of failure. Of ridicule. Of wasting (once again) precious resources like time, enthusiasm, and of course, capital - of all sorts like money and network.
Oh, the irony.
Fear is inside our psyche to protect us. Always has been.
Fear helped us get this far, from cave to cubicle (and some other prettier places).
To me -someone with many blank pages in the past- fear was always a friend.
But for long, I had misunderstood fear.
And the weird part? I never minded doing hard stuff. But the problem was in the mundane. The small stuff.
In our times, I don't think there are any real dragons to fight.
And if there were, my gut tells me we would befriend them mostly instead of slaying them. But I digress.
In our times of no BIG fights, the fear is hidden in the small stuff.
And the enemy? Ignoring fear. So no progress. No edits.
Here is a simple system that has worked for me well.
This system is what helped me:
Work abroad
Get a hard-to-get job
Make a special one laugh A LOT (surprisingly, the more men I meet, the harder that looks to be)
Start my own business
Write 1MM+ in ads even though English is (obviously??) not my native language
Become a boxer, scuba diver, rider
Train a closest-it-can-get-to-a-dragon doggo (you might know that Boxer dogs are adorable... but hard to train)
And more.
Hope it helps you too. Use what works for you. Ignore the rest:
1 - Before anything, prepare your mind.
Here are 2 important thought filters that, after training a few hundred people in math, sports, and some other stuff (in Greece we have obligatory military training), I've noticed to be common:
1a - If you keep thinking what others will think of you, stop.
People are so busy in their minds that most won't notice your mistakes. The 'I am in the spotlight' illusion can cripple you. How to beat it? Simple. Notice what others do when you 'fail'. Most probably nothing.
Don't believe me? Just think of all the celebrity gossip -which I never had interest in- that happens every day. In a few hours or days, something else happens, and people literally forget.
If you are not Brad Pitt, chances are your mistakes won't reach the news.
And if you are, man, please ask Ritchie to make a Snatch sequel with you!
1b - Learn, damn it!
Lesson from a dear but dumb friend. This bloke tried everything. But he never learned. He only recycled again and again his experiences. The same mistakes in a different wrap. He knew he was doing the same X mistake... and kept repeating it.
Knowing what you're doing is wrong and still doing it is borderline paranoid.
If you're like that, just close this and forget everything we said.
Nothing will work for you, even if you had a goldmine between your ears (which probably we all do, but I digress).
2 - Do more things.
Everything is connected.
The more experienced you become, the easier you connect the dots.
And the more good stuff you feed your mind, body, and above all soul, the better.
Garbage in → Garbage out, as you’ve seen everywhere.
#3 - Do your homework.
Or even better, try to remember how you did your homework in Geometry class.
You have a project. So you need the facts, the 'problem', the tools, to find the solution.
Handle it like that. This structure helps you start. Even badly.
#4 - No idea who coined this, but Write like Hemingway. Edit like Ogilvy.
If you don't know these gentlemen, search them. You’re in for a treat.
As the scope of this is not to introduce you to writing or advertising, the idea behind this amazing quote is to be creative and bold in your creation.
But once you edit, act like an attention-to-detail gentleman who made millions thanks to his imagination, gusto, and creative discipline.
#5 - EVERYTHING Is Think × Do × Learn.
Always think of what was missing in this simple trident.
Anything we do -literally anything- has a mix of these 3.
🔱 Removing bad luck, a negative outcome always comes from the lack or misuse of at least one of these 3.
🔱 Removing good luck, a positive outcome always comes from the minimum mix of these 3.
Simple as that.
So what's next?
Anytime you’re stuck, remind yourself to start.
Play with the above framework. I know you’ll add your flavor to it.
But even in this simple form, it works.
I challenge you to prove me wrong.
Either way, your future self won't be able to thank you enough.
Go make waves, amigo.
P.S.
A new favorite quote is that you can just do things.
If you want to do things under Parkinson's Law constraints, I made this simple timer for free.
Highly recommend playing with it a bit if you plan to 'edit' any 'page' on your computer.
Thanks for your time. Until next time, stay awesome.
